The Festag Update Beta

Total War: WARHAMMER II

Ella McConnell

December 11 2018

The Festag Update Beta brings a number of improvements, changes, fixes, and balance changes to WARHAMMER II, along with a major skills update for the Lords and Legendary Lords of the Old World that appear in WARHAMMER II’s Mortal Empires campaign.

Characters of the Old World now get Red Skill Trees comparable to their New World counterparts in WARHAMMER II, plus numerous tweaks and changes to their existing skills, traits and abilities. Character mounts have also been standardised to unlock at specific ranks. These are all detailed below.

Alongside a fresh balance pass for specific battlefield units, the Festag Update Beta also features some important bugfixes, including a fix for a crash that occurred when a Vampire Coast faction owning Pirate Coves was destroyed, and a fix that ensures Exhaustion is applied after a Hero has established a Pirate Cove.

Spectator Mode has also been updated with new functionality. Again, please see below for full details.

Instructions

It is highly recommended that you start a new campaign after opting into this beta. Since a large number of skills have been reworked, any points invested in skills prior to the Festag Update are likely to be lost in an existing save game.

We already have an existing beta named public_beta, so to avoid confusion, this will be renamed and we’ll have two betas that can be selected from:

norsca_beta – This is for those who wish to remain on the most recent update prior to the Festag update, in order to continue with existing multiplayer save games (which will not be compatible with the Festag Update) or campaigns with existing Legendary Lord skills choices you wish to preserve. This beta was previously known as “public_beta”.

coast_beta – This provides the Festag Update, comprising all the new content, fixes, changes and balance updates detailed below.

Instructions for opting into and downloading the update are as follows:

In your Steam games library, right-click Total War: WARHAMMER II and select Properties.

In the Properties window, select the BETAS tab.

Select coast_beta from the list.

Total War: WARHAMMER II will automatically update to the Festag Beta Update.

Old World Character Skills Update

Red Skill Tree Update

This major update revamps the Red Skill Trees of the Old World Lords and Legendary Lords in Mortal Empires, adding a host of new skills and updating existing ones to be on par with their New World counterparts. Certain legacy Red Skills have been moved up to the Lords’ Yellow (character) Skill Tree, or have been compressed down into single or double-tier skills now, giving players more bang-for-buck with their skill point expenditure.

Mount Unlock Ranks

The Character Ranks required to unlock mounts for Lords and Heroes have been standardised across the board. Please note, these are general Rank standardisations; certain characters may deviate from this standard for balance purposes.

Melee Lords/Heroes

Light Armoured Steed – Rank 4

Armoured Steed – Rank 7

Chariot – Rank 10

Flying Mount – Rank 12

Large Vehicle – Rank 16

Large Monster – Rank 18

Flying Monster – Rank 18

Caster Lords/Heroes

Light Armoured Steed – Rank 7

Armoured Steed – Rank 11

Chariot – Rank 14

Flying Mount – Rank 16

Large Vehicle – Rank 20

Large Monster – Rank 22

Flying Monster – Rank 22

Spectator Mode

Spectator mode now features some additional functionality:

AI can now be added to the game.

Spectator hosts can now invite players into their game using the invite button.

Host spectator will now be able to use the spectator controls.

Players now connected to spectator host can now see ready status of the host.

Campaign Changes and Fixes

Fixed a crash that could occur when a Vampire Coast faction owning Pirate Coves was destroyed.

Fixed a rare end turn crash.

Fixed a crash that could occur when Beastmen Brayherds changed stances.

Fixed a crash that occurred when a building was changed while a settlement panel was open.

Fixed a crash that occurs when loading back into the campaign map from Tyrion’s Sunfang quest battle.

Fixed a crash that could occur when triggering the Chaos challenger spawn when playing as Norsca.

Fixed a crash in multiplayer campaign that occurred when one player unlocked a Vampire bloodline when the other player was playing as a non-Vampire Count race.